"A major contribution to Amazonian anthropology, and possibly a direction changer."--J. Scott Raymond, University of Calgary A transdisciplinary collaboration among ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists, Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia traces the emergence, expansion, and decline of cultural identities in indigenous Amazonia. Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology--essentialist notions of ethnic identities--is a Eurocentric bias that has characterized largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. Th

8. The Spread of the Arawakan Languages9. Comparative Arawak Linguistics; 10. Linguistic Diversity Zones and Cartographic Modeling; 11. Nested Identities in the Southern Guyana-Surinam Corner; 12. Change, Contact, and Ethnogenesis in Northern Quechua; Part III: Ethnohistory; 13. Sacred Landscapes as Environmental Histories in Lowland South America; 14. Constancy in Continuity? Native Oral History, Iconography, and Earthworks on the Upper Purús River; 15. Ethnogenesis at the Interface of the Andes and the Amazon; 16. Ethnogenesis and Interculturality in the "Forest of Canelos."

17. Captive Identities, or the Genesis of Subordinate Quasi-Ethnic Collectivities in the American Tropics18. Afterword; Contributors; Index

"A major contribution to Amazonian anthropology, and possibly a direction changer."--J. Scott Raymond, University of Calgary A transdisciplinary collaboration among ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists, Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia traces the emergence, expansion, and decline of cultural identities in indigenous Amazonia. Hornborg and Hill argue that the tendency to link language, culture, and biology--essentialist notions of ethnic identities--is a Eurocentric bias that has characterized largely inaccurate explanations of the distribution of ethnic groups and languages in Amazonia. Th

8. The Spread of the Arawakan Languages9. Comparative Arawak Linguistics; 10. Linguistic Diversity Zones and Cartographic Modeling; 11. Nested Identities in the Southern Guyana-Surinam Corner; 12. Change, Contact, and Ethnogenesis in Northern Quechua; Part III: Ethnohistory; 13. Sacred Landscapes as Environmental Histories in Lowland South America; 14. Constancy in Continuity? Native Oral History, Iconography, and Earthworks on the Upper Purús River; 15. Ethnogenesis at the Interface of the Andes and the Amazon; 16. Ethnogenesis and Interculturality in the "Forest of Canelos."

17. Captive Identities, or the Genesis of Subordinate Quasi-Ethnic Collectivities in the American Tropics18. Afterword; Contributors; Index